Police are deleting smartphone videos at crime scenes — even though it’s illegal

A protestors hold up her hands in front of the NYPD as she and others block traffic on the West Side Highway during demonstrations on Dec. 4, 2014 in New York City against the chokehold death of an unarmed black man by a white police officer. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP)

LOS ANGELES — In the early hours of April 13, 2015, in a residential neighborhood in south Los Angeles, police arrived outside the home of Alex Jimenez, a 35-year-old man who was experiencing severe “emotional issues,” according to Luis Carillo, an attorney now representing Jimenez’s family. By the end of the night, he was dead. What,…